The PGA Championship tournament, which originated back in 1916, takes place at the Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma from May 19th to 22nd. The par-70 course measures 7,556 yards (6,909 metres) with the tournament being mainly open to professional golfers only.
American Phil Mickelson enters the 2022 event, which is the 104th in total, as the reigning champion after coming in at 6-under par last year to win by two strokes. However, Mickelson has decided to skip this year’s tournament as he continues to take a break from PGA events.
There will be plenty of other top golfers competing on the weekend though such as Collin Morikawa, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Shane Lowry, Jason Day and Tiger Woods.
This will be the first PGA championship held at Southern Hills since 2007 when Tiger Woods captured the Wanamaker Trophy by shooting 8-under par to beat Woody Austin by two strokes.
The PGA Championship is generally known to feature the strongest field of golfers possible due to the qualification criteria. This includes recent major champions, past PGA winners, the top golfers at the previous year’s event, Ryder Cup players and leading PGA Tour money winners etc. Many of the top-100 ranked world golfers are also invited if they don’t fall into the qualification criteria.
The PGA Championship originally began as a match-play tournament but was changed to stroke-play with the 1958 event and now features a maximum of 156 male golfers.
PGA Championship Records
Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus share the record for most victories with five each while Niklaus also holds the mark for most runner-up finishes with four.
Gene Sarazen became the youngest winner of the event in 1922 at the age of 20 years and 174 days.
Last year saw Phil Mickelson become the oldest winner as he was 50 years and 11 months of age.
The largest margin of victory in the stroke-play era came in 2012 when Rory McIlroy beat David Lynn by eight strokes at Kiawah Island.
The lowest 72-hole score belongs to Brooks Koepka as he shot 69-63-66-66 for 264 in 2018 at Bellerive Country Club in Missouri.
The lowest under-par score was shot by Jason Day in 2015 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin when he came in at 20-under par.
The lowest score over 18-holes has been 63 and has been achieved several times by various golfers. The last time it happened was in 2019 courtesy of Brooks Koepka.
According to the latest bet365 odds, Scottie Scheffler is the favorite to win the PGA Championship at +1100. He’s followed by Jon Rahm at +1200, Rory McIlroy at +1400, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth at +1600 and Collin Morikawa at +1800. Alexander Schauffele is +2200, while Hideki Matsuyama is +3000. Tiger Woods is +7500 with Cameron Young +8000 and Christiaan Bezuidenhout at +12500.
For a full up-to-date list of golfer’s odds for the event please visit https://www.bet365.com/#/AC/B7/C20818867/D720/E67/F720/
Other popular bet365 wagers for the PGA Championship include top golfer by category, to make the cut, winning margin, holes in one, nationality of the winner, the leader after each round and top finishes etc.
Let’s take a look at some of the tournament’s most popular entrants:
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Bezuidenhout has entered 31 PGA Tour events since July, 2020 with his best finish in them being just seventh place. He placed 12th at the recent AT&T Byron Nelson where he came in 20-under par. He’s won four pro events so far with three of them coming on the European Tour early in 2020. He’s also made the cut in five straight majors but hasn’t managed to finish in the top-30 of any of them.
Hideki Matsuyama
Matsayuma won the Masters in 2021 and then won three of his next 23 events with another three top-10 finishes at 6th, 8th and 3rd. He then finished in 14th place at the Masters earlier this year before taking some time off due to back and neck problems. He rebounded last week at the AT&T Bryon Nelson by finishing third. This will be his 10th PGA Championship with his best finishes being 4th in 2017 and 5th the following year.
Rory McIlroy
McIlroy has been quite busy since last year’s Ryder Cup as he’s golfed in 11 tournaments since. He won the CJ CUP and managed to finish in the top-10 in four other events. He placed 2nd at the recent Masters and 5th at the Wells Fargo Championship. He’s played the PGA Championship 13 times so far with victories in 2012 and 2014 as well as half a dozen top-10 finishes. However, he hasn’t won a major tournament in the past seven years.
Collin Morikawa
Morikawa won the last DP World Tour Championship and has finished in the top-10 in four of his 10 tournaments so far in 2022 with finishes of 5th, 2nd, 9th and 5th. He’s played the PGA Championship just twice a win and came away with a win and an 8th-place finish.
Jon Rahm
Rahm won his first event of the year at the Mexico Championship last month after struggling in his five previous tournaments where he placed 21st, 17th, 55th, 9th and 27th. This will be his sixth PGA Championship after missing the cut once but also boasting a previous 8th and 4th-place finish.
Xander Schauffele
Schauffele was ranked as the second-best male golfer in the world early in 2019 but then hit a dry spell as he didn’t win a tournament until taking this April’s Zurich Classic. He performed well at the recent
AT&T Byron Nelson but hasn’t won a major tournament in his past 10 tries. However, he did finish in the top-10 on eight occasions.
Scottie Scheffler
There’s no doubt Scheffler is in fine form right now as he has won four of his past eight tournaments to go along with a 7th-place finish. He captured the Waste Management, WGC-Dell Technologies, and Arnold Palmer Invitational and of course also won the Masters. Scheffler tied for fourth place in 2020 at his first PGA Championship at 10-under par and came in 8th place last year.
Jordan Spieth
Spieth enters the tournament in good form with a victory and runner-up finish in the last two weeks. A win at the PGA Championship will give him a career major grand slam. He’s played in nine previous PGA championships and finished 2nd in 2015 and 3rd in 2019 while missing the cut twice.
Cameron Young
Young missed the cut at this year’s Masters but racked up three 2nd-place and one 3rd-place finish in 15 tournaments during his first full year on the PGA Tour. This includes a runner-up finish at the RBC Heritage and coming in 3rd at the Wells Fargo Championship.